Govt in a Death Spiral

Hello, it’s All Things Political, with John Porter on Bay FM.  

The public’s love affair with Jacinda Ardern seems to have turned very frosty of late and it looks like her inept Government will be given the bum’s rush come the 2023 general election.

Pandemic politics are well and truly over. Labour’s total grip on the Government appears set to end.

The electorate has tired of this bumbling Government, tired of its leader and tired of its separatist agenda.

Current poll results indicate a change of government will take place.

Those poll results combined with the Tauranga by-election result surely signal Labour is a goner!

Many political commentators are saying the same thing these days. Prominent political commentator, Damien Grant, has been quite scathing, saying:

The Prime Minister can shuffle her front bench, sack a few lame ducks and shovel even more responsibility onto her few capable ministers. It will not work.

Her administration is caught in a death-spiral from which there is no return, and from which there will be no respite. This Government is undone.

Ardern is trapped by her past success, and her past mistakes. She has one achievement: Covid.

Everything else has been a failure or of no enduring electoral weight, and more concerning for the ninth floor of the Beehive, she appears to be losing control of her own party.

So, what do leaders do when things are looking grim and when their popularity is on a serious downward trend?

They chop off heads and promote some new blood!

So, recently, Ardern announced a “minor” cabinet reshuffle.

To call major decisions that directly impact the government minor is arrogant and condescending. 

The substance of the major reshuffle was solid. 

Naturally, Ardern didn’t want to come out saying I’m about to chop off the heads of a bunch of my ill-equipped, distraction-causing MPs in a major reshuffle. Oh no, she couldn’t be that candid.

But she should have been honest with voters and just called it a reshuffle.

These are the little misrepresentations, the disingenuous disclosures, that create distrust with the public and for good reason. This Government are gold medallists at deceit.

Ardern may have done well by her Government and the public with her cabinet shake-up recently but by mislabelling it, simply for PR purposes, she also reminded people why they’re growing less fond of her. 

When Ardern was pushed on how accurate it was to describe the reshuffle as minor, is she pooh-poohed the question saying “…it’s too easy to get caught up in language. Who cares?”

So Ardern has sacked Poto Williams in a “minor” cabinet reshuffle. There’s no argument; Williams really had to go. She was out of her depth and Ardern was watching her being destroyed by National on the crime stats battlefield.

Again though, Ardern got it wrong. She gave an under-skilled MP the portfolio in the first place. 

Yes, Ardern has sacked Poto Williams, but she lacks the gumption to sack Mahuta, who is a much larger electoral liability but is an MP with a lot more political power and clout.

The Prime Minister is unwilling or, more likely, unable to stand up to the Maori caucus, whose demands on issues like co-governance are proving a marketing bonanza to the Taxpayers Union, whose Three Waters rural road-show has played to packed halls.

Kris Faafoi has been sacked and yes, he had to go. Though Faafoi’s failure to manage his portfolio was actually Ardern’s fault, again.

In her desperation for some degree of talent in her cabinet after the 2020 election, it was Ardern who asked him to stay on. But Faafoi wanted out! It’s Ardern’s screw up really; he didn’t want to be there. 

Mallard. Well, no arguments, he simply had to go! How could we forget the public relations disaster of how the parliamentary lawn protest was handled?

Turning on the sprinklers, playing Barry Manilow and to end it all he trespassed MPs from parliament! That was a bridge too far, even for “Be Kind” Ardern.

Mallard did what he does best, create a balls up!

And for that, he will receive a knighthood, a plum overseas diplomatic job and be paid a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year!

Defenders of Ardern will point to her outstanding performance in the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attack and the response to White Island, and in moments of crisis this Prime Minister has no equal.

For all her failings, Ardern retains enormous respect and, in some quarters, genuine affection. Many voters secretly quite like the fact that our Prime Minister is feted on the global stage.

But none of her empathetic responses matter. None of her overseas popularity matters.

Remember the blunders of not ordering protective clothing and respirators in time, border failures, the seizing of private companies’ orders of RAT tests, and how could we forget Health Minister Andrew Little continuously assuring us that our ICU departments were fully able to cope.

Try telling that to the family of the Auckland woman who recently failed to receive care at Middlemore ED, Andrew!

This Government continually displays considerable arrogance by pushing policy further than public opinion was entirely comfortable with. The reform of Three Waters is a classic example of the Labour Government pushing policy in the face of credible and considerable resistance.

It is that arrogance, combined with their ingrained duplicity that will see them sitting on the opposition benches post the 2023 election!